Thursday, January 24, 2013

As some of you know, we recently lost both of our beloved greyhounds to bone cancer. And I realized that I have never really posted anything about them before! So, to remedy that, this is how we became greyhound people.

When Paul and I were married for not quite a year, we decided to get a dog. We did our research, and quickly became interested in greyhounds. They were so much fun to watch at the local racetrack, and from all accounts made great pets once retired. We found a local adoption program and over the course of a few weeks chose a gorgeous white and red boy to bring home.

Racn Talladega, or Dega, seemed like the perfect dog. The epitome of dog-dom, if you will. When they walked him in from the kennel, we felt like we had won the lottery. Such a handsome boy, so sleek, so soft, so calm. We changed his name to Deja Vu, just Deja for short. It took a little adjusting to get him used to living in a house. He needed to learn to use the stairs and the doggie door. He had to get used to that weird spinning thing on the ceiling. But overall it was a very smooth transition.

Because Paul and I both worked full-time at this point, he spent all day alone at the house. He started digging a little in the backyard, and we figured he probably needed a pal to keep him company during the day. When we picked him up, we had heard that his brother was also available for adoption. Deja was such a well-behaved, well-adjusted dog already we definitely didn’t mind the idea of another one like him.

So we called back to ask if Deja’s brother had a similar personality, and to see if we could adopt him also.

“Oh yes,” we were told, “they are exactly alike!” Perfect! We arranged to pick up Racin Rockingham, or Hammie, at the next adoption night and asked for a picture so we could see what he looked like in the mean time.

Hmm. Definitely white and red, but why is he all dirty? And why is his posture so different? Probably just a bad picture, right?

So we went to pick up Hammie, just three weeks after we brought Deja home. We waited for him to be brought out from the kennel just like before, though it seemed to take longer this time. A lot longer. But finally, Hammie arrived! All wet. Because he had to have a bath. Because he got so anxious in the kennel, he went diarrhea all over himself. Great.

We kind of gave each other a concerned look, but he was so sweet and affectionate from the first that it was easy to overlook the fact that he already seemed NOTHING like Deja.

So Hammie came home, too. And really, the transition wasn’t so bad. He settled in really well and the two of them became best buds.